badges on ebay
 

I don't know about you dear brothers, but it pisses :mad: me off whenever i see a badge on ebay, and I have and will continue to commend those brothers who purchase those badges to keep hold of the spirit of those brothers who are lost to us (as most of them are fifty + years old).

I have previously yelled and hollered at sellers who sell those badges, commanding them to just "give it back."
This has also almost got me kicked off ebay so i stopped... for now. :D

sorry, just needed to vent. Btw, I have 40 feedback rating, as soon as I have 50, I am making a Beta group so we can sell to each other.

what do you guys think?

It bothers me too, though to be fair I get the impression most of them are sold by relatives (either on eBay or to vendors who put them on eBay) who don't really have an understanding of the significance of a fraternal badge.

I keep watch for badges from my own chapter. Not only can they be donated to General Fraternity where they will be accorded proper reverence, but they can also make good auction items for alumni events (I must give credit to Lambda Chi Alpha Tom Earp from this forum for this great idea) or donated to chapters for display.

With a little research, you can write up a bio on the original owner and frame it along with the badge as an important piece of chapter history.

As for the eBay sales group- it really depends on who is selling. Betas don't really sell their own badges so you would be reaching out to third parties. And as someone who has been on eBay for 10 years now, I have to say that contacting 3rd parties is, as you have learned, almost never a good idea. No matter how good your intentions, a stranger will assume you want to either get the item cheaper than a live auction might produce or that you are trying to scam them in some way.

What a Brilliant Idea! If the member's chapter is up-to-date on their Roll Book, than it would not be very difficult to write, at least for a short biography

I have a random story about pins and ebay...

I went to a dinner with a large group of alumni from the '50s last year. One was telling me how about 30 years ago his house was broken into and his wife's jewelery box was stolen. He kept his pin in this box and figured it was gone forever.

Well, skip forward to about 2004, and he receives a letter in the mail with his pin in the envelope, explaining how the sender found the pin on ebay, bought it, and then tracked down the rightful owner on the Beta website and sent it back to him!

I thought that was pretty cool.

The Ebay Group would not be for pins, ha, it would be to use each other as a resource as well as offer discounts to each other.

By the way, that's an awesome story.

Using this brilliant idea, I have helped return two pins to their rightful owners. Simply by calling or emailing the Brother from the Beta website letting him know, and politely contacting the seller asking that it be returned to its original owner (as most of these auctions list the name and roll number engraved on the back). No seller has refused me yet, as most are members of GLOs who understand the sentimental value behind a fraternity badge.

The sellers were both cooperative- one of the Brother's pins had been stolen during a burglary last month. It turns out that a thief had sold it at a pawn shop three states away, where the eBay seller bought it to resell.

You could say eBay has its benefits... without it being listed there, that Brother would probably never have seen his badge again!

I have told sellers to return them to the owners but in doing so i almost got kicked off ebay, but I must admit I was not very friendly... :)

If I see a Beta badge on Ebay, I normally try do some investigation and find the owner's information. I usually politely ask the seller to return it to me, the AO, or the rightful owner. I've never received a hateful response, but several tell me that it is their right to sell their property.

are you saying betas are selling their badges?

Not that I can tell... Most are sold from people who find them lost and try to make a quick buck instead of finding the owner, or Greek Collectors who get them from Pawn Shops when they're lost or stolen.

There are some really old badges, ~1920's that obviously don't belong to a living person, but perhaps one of his descendants who thought he could just sell family heirlooms for a quick buck, too.

I honestly don't think any Beta would ever sell his own badge...

By sellers declaring their right to sell "their property" they are referring to themselves as the badge's owner, whether or not it has their name and roll number on it